Flower Garland

I love flowers, unfortunately I am not a very good natural flower keeper so I like to do artificial ones out o paper so that I can have flowers that last long. I am always looking for new ideas on how to make them and display them. So today I am sharing how to make flower garlands for the home. 

I started with an assortment of inks - Distress Inks, Distress Stains and Dylusions Sprays - a selection of flower dies - Fresh Moments: Intricate Flowers - and loads of coffee filters. Coffee filters are essential as they will hold loads of water which is needed to colour the flowers without breaking.

Die cut two filters at at time, depending on the size and intricacy of the flower you may get away with three filters. I die cut all four sizes at once using my Big Shot.

I put a drop of the Distress Reinker (Spun Sugar) and then spray the yellow Dylusion.  Then I sprayed water over the inks and finally place the die cut flowers - all layers together - and let them absorb the inks. Because there are two colours it will create a naturalistic look through the flowers.

Another way to add colour is to use the Distress stains directly over very wet flowers. I dont clean the plastic underneath so that a little of the other colours come through.

Also looks really nice if you soak the flowers and then just dab the distress ink pad. Or just use the Dylusions.

For a lighter effect, my favourite option is to spray the flowers with loads of water, then make a circle using the distress stains, place the flower in the centre and with the gentle help of my fingers let the colour soak through the flower. As you can see on the right loads of flowers are quickly done and each layer is unique.

There are many ways to make a garland, but sewing them together seems like a good idea for a quick and easy fix. I just put then through one by one.

And you can see the finished garland bellow, over an open book. (I love how this looks, I am thinking of putting it as it is on a frame.

But you can use it to decorate so many things, like curtains or around a plain frame like bellow.

I hope you enjoy and will be making some flowers and garlands soon. it is so much fun!